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Nano Research 2020,13 (6) : 1620-1626 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2782-0
Research Article | Issue | Published: 12 May 2020
A HfC nanowire point electron source with oxycarbide surface of lower work function for high-brightness and stable field-emission
Show Author's Information Shuai Tang1,  Jie Tang1,2( ),  Ta-wei Chiu1,2,  Wataru Hayami1,  Jun Uzuhashi1,  Tadakatsu Ohkubo1,  Fumihiko Uesugi1,  Masaki Takeguchi1,  Masanori Mitome1,  Lu-Chang Qin3( )
National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0047, Japan
Graduate School of Pure and Applied Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8857, Japan
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255, USA
Keywords:
hafnium carbide, oxycarbide, nanowire, electron emission, field emission
Subject:
  Hafnium compounds
Cite this article:
S. Tang, J. Tang, T.-w. Chiu, et al. A HfC nanowire point electron source with oxycarbide surface of lower work function for high-brightness and stable field-emission. Nano Research. 2020, 13 (6) : 1620-1626. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2782-0.
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Abstract Full text About this article

Electric field-induced point electron source is highly demanded for microscopy, spectroscopy, lithography, X-ray tubes, microwave devices, and data displays. However, the instability in emission current and requirement of ultrahigh vacuum have often limited its extensive applications. Herewith we report a single-crystalline HfC nanowire with oxycarbide emission surface for stable electron emission at 50 nA with fluctuations less than 1% in a vacuum of 4 × 10-7 Pa. The emitter has a low work function of 2.5 eV measured by the field emission Fowler-Nordheim curve and it is in good agreement with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The energy spread is in a range of 0.21-0.26 eV with a corresponding reduced brightness 1.95 × 1011-3.81 × 1011 A·m-2·sr-1·V-1. The HfC nanowire with oxycarbide emission surface is a qualified candidate for the next-generation electron source with high brightness, large current, and low energy spread.

FullText for HTML:https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2782-0

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Publication history

Received: 20 January 2020
Revised: 20 March 2020
Accepted: 29 March 2020
Published: 12 May 2020
Issue date: June 2020

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. K. Hono for helpful discussions on the FIM and atom probe results. This work was supported partially by the NIMS-DENKA Centre of Excellence for Next Generation Materials. A part of this work was also supported by NIMS Microstructural Characterization Platform as a program of "Nanotechnology Platform" of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan.

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